THE WATER-HEN 
remorselessly as the sun. 
The oily surface of the 
Pool was unruffled by 
any wind. But the river, 
though it had little 
enough water flowing 
over its pebbles, babbled 
so loudly that the moor- 
hens could hear it across 
the meadow, and the 
sound of fresh running 
water was enticing after 
the hot, stagnant Pool. In another week the 
little ones might be strong enough to attempt 
the journey over the intervening meadows, but 
at present Cearc-uise thought that they were 
too small to force their way through the long 
grass ; and although the old nest had long ago 
been left high and dry, there was still the float- 
ing refuge-nest in the middle of what had been 
the Pool, which afforded them some measure 
of safety. 
All night long footsteps came and went through 
the bushes. A stoat visited the rats' burrow, 
and though, as a rule, the inmates escaped 
easily through their back-doors, which opened 
under water, yet now these short cuts were all 
high and dry, and the stoat had good hunting. 
But just before dawn the stoat himself retreated 
29 
